For many structural applications, polycrystalline diamond is preferred over single crystal diamond because of its superior fracture toughness. The fracture toughness is due in part to the presence of (111)-type cleavage planes in the diamond cubic structure. In single crystal diamonds, once a cleavage crack is initiated on a (111) plane, the crack propagates relatively unimpeded through the crystal. In polycrystalline diamonds, the lack of continuity in cleavage planes from one grain to the next greatly impedes crack propagation. Naturally-occurring polycrystalline diamonds clearly demonstrate this effect. Although rare and expensive, such naturally-occurring polycrystalline diamonds are used in particularly demanding applications, such as in rock-drill bits where load factors are high.
High quality diamond powders (grits), films, bulk crystals and diamond-metal composites are widely manufactured for many applications. Diamond grits are produced by hot pressing carbon precursors (e.g., graphite powder) under high pressure and high temperature conditions, within the region of thermodynamic stability of diamond. Thin films of diamond are produced by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) utilizing CH4/H2 mixtures as precursors and hydrogen plasma. Though the diamond films produced are high quality, the growth rates are low and processing costs are relatively high.
Diamond-metal composites are composed of a high fraction of diamond particles cemented together with a metallic binder, such as cobalt. The ductile metallic binder imparts toughness to the composite, while the diamond component provides superior wear resistance. In practice, a thin layer of the diamond-metal composite is bonded to a supporting substrate, such as cobalt-cemented tungsten carbide (WC/Co). Such diamond-hardfaced WC/Co composites (also known as polycrystalline diamond compacts or PDCs) are widely used in machine tools and rock-drill bits, because of their high cutting rates and long service lives.
Due to the demand for polycrystalline diamonds in various applications, there is a need for a method for rapidly synthesizing polycrystalline diamonds having strong crystallite boundaries, and with nano- or micro-grained structures for enhanced strength and toughness. There is a further need for such a method that is cost effective and simple to implement using existing equipment.